The Woman in Black

Bea says: I was keen to see this after hearing a radio interview with the author of the book it was adapted from (Susan Hill, The Woman in Black). On the radio, Susan Hill was engaging and interesting, and I decided to see the upcoming film on the basis of the interview, and the anticipated thrill of a good, old fashioned ghost story, so I dragged Cecil down to our local cinema for the afternoon show.

The book is now on either the GSCE or A level syllabus, which perhaps explains its popularity and the amount of young people in the audience (or perhaps that is more to do with Daniel Radcliffe!) Radcliffe does a good turn as Arthur Kipps, a grieving and poorly performing young lawyer who takes a make-or-break case to settle the affairs of a widow in the north east of England. Arriving in town, he is greeted with suspicion and before long the eerie events begin. It is indeed a good old-fashioned ghost story (and actually not very original - but I am sure Cecil will say more about that!) with all the requirements of such a story: mist, derelict houses, Victoriana, strange children etc etc. The ending rather caught me by surprise; and I am still not sure whether I think it was an interesting departure from the usual ghost story formula or just a cop-out. I am a wimp and easy to scare, but I certainly got the chills and jumped out of my skin a few times (so much so that the young woman next to me laughed more at my reactions than got scared herself!).

The film is beautifully shot and worth seeing just for the scenery, costumes and Victoriana of the widow's house. Although set in the north east of England, a little bit of internet research has told me that the house and causeway scenes were shot in Essex, and the railway scenes on the Bluebell steam railway.
**1/2

Cecil says: To get really scared by a ghost story, I need to be immersed in the plot and for the surprises to work on me I need no distraction around me...

What were those eerie whispering voices all around us? Oh damn yes, it was the kids from Richmond High School lower sixth...

And those shady figures moving around the auditorium? Yep, same kids - and some younger - heading off to the loo (I thought it was older men who had incontinence problems??)

But hey that rustling and crackling noise is scary. Where does it come from? Oh darn, it's the kids behind us munching on popcorn...

I'll barely mention the flashing lights as Facebook pinged up on mobile phones all round the place every 5 minutes.

So, without total immersion in the atmosphere, I'm afraid this film did nothing for me. It just came across as silly and soooo like any other cheap horror, mystery film over the years (and yes, there WAS the usual Scoobie-Doo plot to it)...

In the evening after the film, we decided to watch an old DVD in the absence of anything good on telly. Herzog's Nosferatu was our choice. And blow me down if I didn't get the impression that the maker of The Woman in Black had nicked (no, sorry, been inspired by) idea after idea from Nosferatu: from tentative search room by room of a mysterious house; through tombs that have a convenient diagonal opening through the middle so you can open it; hell, Nosferatu even had a woman in black for god's sake. But Nosferatu was a great film...

*.5

War Horse

Bea says: I was a little reluctant to go and see this as I was worried I would require industrial quantities of tissues to get through it. As it happened, I didn't, as although this film certainly did tug at my heartstrings it was in a Hollywood/Spielberg kind of way and I held out on the tears.

I would describe the story as Black Beauty set in WW1 - a beautiful foal is born in pleasant Devon countryside, and after an idyllic few months is sold at market for the first time to a foolhardy farmer with an idealistic son who is Joey's first and most important and enduring owner/trainer; however a series of owners and trials follows as we see Joey go from farm to war.

Like Black Beauty, Joey forms a bond with another horse who shares in many of his trials, and whose story is more tragic, as we learn just how badly horses were treated during the dark days of the Somme - as well as being reminded just how badly humans were treated too.

The film is long, but didn't drag and the second half moves at a particularly fast clip. The story is engaging (Black Beauty was itself a bestseller, and indeed the stage run of War Horse was a massive success in the West End, so this kind of story is a winner, obviously), and although the war was somewhat toned down a bit for a family audience, it did communicate the horrors pretty well - as well as classics like Gallipoli, say, or Birdsong, which has just been screened on the BBC.

This is Spielberg, so the cinematography is fantastic, the score exactly right, and the effects as good as they could be. I didn't like the sunset scene in Devon at the end - admittedly I don't live in Devon but sunsets don't really look like that in the UK, it looked more like a ranch in the Mid West of America, but I suspect it might have been referencing the stage play at that point as well (which I haven't seen).

I did like experiencing the war from the point of view of a horse - many animals were of course involved in WW1, and that story is rarely told. That brought something different to the usual animal story, and the usual war story.

A good way to spend a very cold, dreary, and icy afternoon, and suitable for the whole family.

***

Cecil says: I didn't like the beginning or the ending, but the middle two hours were OK.

At first, I couldn't help thinking it looked a bit like a combination of Lark Rise to Candleford and Jurassic Park. Might seem an odd combination, but look at how clean everything was, how computer-generated the animals and landscape looked (though the credits at the end did give thanks to the Dartmoor National Park, so I guess Spielberg did actually film there).

And, as Bea says, the ending felt very trite. A bit too glossy, too romantic; a bit like all those classic American sit-coms and films in the 1950s that had to end with happy, smiling families.

Actually, the soundtrack did annoy me, too: a few too many violins right from the opening scenes; it's like Spielberg knew that everyone was supposed to bring hankies and he wanted them used up in the first few minutes.

But, I complain too much. The rest of the film was fairly gripping stuff. Nice casting of all sorts of nationalities, but wow, those Germans, Belgians, French and Danes sure spoke good English!

The British actors were mostly familiar faces: how many films have Emily Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston and Eddie Marsan been in over the last 12 months? They're in everything, it seems.

As Bea says, a good way to spend a cold winter's afternoon, but surely not an Oscar-winning film?

***